A new dawn

Silence has fallen on the house. The girls have gone up country – eldest to visit friends before returning to the Netherlands, youngest to party before returning for the weekend. Lovely husband has gone to work. In this no man’s land between Christmas and New Year, I clear away the debris from the happy mayhem of the last few days and think about 2016.

But before I make plans, I take stock of what I achieved and what I didn’t…

My achievements

At the beginning of last year my only real creative goal was to explore. I’d known for some years there were certain creative areas I needed to leave behind and that I needed to identify where I wanted to focus my creative energies. But although this had been my goal for some time, it was only last year that I finally discovered the beginnings of my new path.

What I failed to achieve

Reflecting on what we fail to achieve is often far more enlightening than considering what we do achieve. However not setting any real creative goals leaves me only with very minor fails – such as failing to complete all the UFOs I listed at the beginning of the year.

So for this year, my reflections on my creative achievements conclude that allowing myself to explore, rather than set goals, was the right thing to do – it has also spawned a whole heap of new goals. Reflections on my minor ‘fails’ (and successes) have been blogged as I go along, so I won’t bore you with those again.

My conclusions may feel simple, but for me 2015 has been huge. For the last few years we’ve been dealing with challenges life has thrown at us. Even without them we’ve also been in a big place of change. But as we enter 2016 I feel as if we’ve sailed out of the stormy seas. Of course life will have plenty more tucked up its sleeve to hurl sooner or later, but for now, in this moment of calm when I finally know the direction my creativity is headed in, it feels that exciting possibilities are rising from beneath the horizon. This year I’m going to make plans.

But before I work on setting concrete goals for 2016, I’m reflecting a little longer on what else I can learn from last year. So a few more questions I’m asking myself are:

What/who surprised you most in 2015?

Who/what turned out to be most important in 2015?

Who/what turned out to be less important than you thought it/they’d be in 2015?

If I could go back in time and change one thing about 2015, what would it be? How would I change it?

I’m sure there’s a million other questions I could ask too.

What did you learn from last year? Are there any particular questions you’re asking yourself?

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17 thoughts on “A new dawn”

This is a great post! I have felt so busy during the holidays, I have barely thought about these details. That is good and just fine. I look forward to seeing what you are up to in 2016. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I learnt that I’m not quite as keen as getting up early on Sunday mornings to go to flea markets or rummaging around in dusty corners of junk shops as I used to be. I was a little low key about it in 2015 so I need to decide whether to carry on with my vintage shop in the casual way I have lately adopted, ramp it back up to full tilt again or call it a day.
Have a great New Year and, as the song says, ‘let’s hope it’s a good one’. x

Will watch with interest to see what you decide. Happy New Year to you too – yep, hope it’s a good one – although sometimes what doesn’t seem good turns out in the end to be better than you’d ever hoped 🙂 x

Hi Bekki, interesting reflections in your post, I enjoyed reading. Thinking back, you’ve had quite a year and accomplished a lot! Good questions at the end. I love the approach of exploring, and will take some time to decide in which direction the exploring and learning will go for me, and also how I plan to schedule it in (the can be the biggest stumbling block for me sometimes!). Take care, and look forward to reading the next. 🙂

Glad you enjoyed the post. You’re absolutely right, it’s the scheduling in that is often the hurdle we fall at. Sometimes because we give ourselves too many goals – but sometimes I think a few too many can be useful as what drops by the wayside can tell us a lot about what we’re not telling ourselves. You take good care too xx

Interesting reflection on a year. From you this year I was reminded about how to turn goals into reality, thank you for this. I spent 6 months in a state of anxiety before pulling myself out the other end when the cause of the anxiety lessened. So I end the year in a better place than I started. Last night I realised that I had been guilty of letting the distant past colour my life to much. Time to move forward! Thanks for all your posts this year and have a Happy New Year, and may 2016 be kind to you and yours

Great thought provoker Bekki! I have a few goals in mind but they will be loose goals, areas I would like to explore more, things I would like to achieve. I may set myself another monthly challenge but something broad, It all needs a bit more mulling time 🙂 x

Hi Sharon, I think mulling time is so important – there’s a few goals I’ve been mulling for months about whether I’ll set off after them this January. As for loose goals, I think one of the most important things with goals is not to shackle yourself too hard unless it’s totally appropriate.

I really enjoyed reading this reflective post, and agree that it’s sometimes more beneficial to us than simply listing what we got right. The questions you’re asking yourself are very interesting and I’m making a note of them to apply to myself! Well done with the things you’ve achieved this year and I’m sure you’ll continue to improve and expand in everything you set out to do in 2016. You probably leave most of us standing, although I can only apply that to myself with any certainty. 🙂

Thank you! Thank you! I have my moments of dithering I can assure you. As for questions. I love love questions. If ever I’m stuck or confused, I just start asking questions until I find one that helps 🙂 PS if that doesn’t work, I ignore it, leave my subconscious to work on it and return later.

Its always good to think back about what you have done over the year before planning the next one.
I have a feeling that my resolutions this year will involve trying to actually finish projects that are useful and practical. More Cake less Frosting…
Happy 2016 to you x

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